Charter to merge with Time Warner in $55 billion deal

ChelseyDulaney, Sarah Rabil and Joe Flint

Charter Communications Inc. has agreed to merge with Time Warner Cable Inc. in a $55 billion cash-and-stock deal, giving cable mogul John Malone the prize he has been chasing for two years.

The offer is valued at about $195 a share, a 14% premium to Time Warner Cable’s
US:TWC
last closing price. Including debt, the deal is valued at $78.7 billion.

The acquisition by Charter
CHTR, -0.07%
, which is backed by Malone’s Liberty Broadband Corp.
LBRDA, -0.76%LBRDK, -0.63%
, would vault the cable operator into the ranks of the biggest U.S. broadband and pay-television companies.

The deal comes only a month after Time Warner Cable went back on the block after Comcast terminated the companies’ planned $45.2 billion merger in the face of serious pushback from Washington regulators. A Charter-TWC deal could be in for a stringent review in Washington as well, some analysts have said.

The firms have agreed to terms for a cash-and-stock deal that would value Time Warner Cable at $195 a share, according to people familiar with the matter.

As part of the transaction, Charter would also merge with small operator Bright House Networks, said people familiar with the deals. The combined cable giant would have 23 million total customers, second only to Comcast’s 27 million among cable operators.

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